Count Binface corrects Reform’s Nadhim Zahawi over false claim he received a £180,000 donation
The ex-Tory MP turned Reform member incorrectly claimed Binface had received a donation from Dale Vince
Count Binface has corrected Reform’s Nadhim Zahawi after he falsely claimed on Good Morning Britain (GMB) that the parody candidate had received a £180,000 donation.
Appearing on GMB on Friday to discuss the Clacton by-election result, Zahawi appeared to attribute Count Binface winning almost 10,000 votes to a supposed £180,000 donation from philanthropist and Labour Party donor Dale Vince.
On the show, host Kate Garraway said: “9,455 people wanted Count Binface.”
In response, Zahawi said: “Yeah and he got, by the way, he got I think £180,000 from Dale Vince, who is a big Labour supporter.”
The former Tory MP added: “He got activists from the Conservative Party and from Labour going out to try and knock on doors for him.”
Binface issued a rebuttal on the social media platform Bluesky yesterday, correcting Zahawi’s “untrue” claims.
Binface, the alter ego of comedian Jon Harvey, wrote: “This is untrue. Dale Vince has never donated any money to me, and at no point have I asked activists from any other party to knock on doors for me.
“If anyone did so, it was not at my direction and was of their own volition.”
He added: “I am sure Mr Zahawi will want to correct the record at his earliest convenience.”
Vince offered to fund Binface’s campaign against Nigel Farage, but the intergalatic space warrior candidate did not accept any money.
Online, people noted the hypocrisy of the Reform figure targeting Count Binface over large political donations.
Farage forced the Clacton by-election by resigning as an MP on 7 July amid the deepening scandal over the £5 million donation he received from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne and failed to declare.
One Bluesky user wrote: “Nadhim Zahawi, if you’re going to tell egregious lies, do you really want to make them about political influence being bought through large donations? Do you really want to go there right now?”.
Good Morning Britain issued a correction on the programme this morning. The presenter clarified that while Vince had offered to donate money to Binface he never accepted any, and that he had never asked Conservative and Labour activists to campaign for him.
Zahawi has faced his own financial scandals. In 2023, he was forced to pay a £5 million settlement to HMRC after failing to pay capital gains tax on the £26 million sale of shares in YouGov, the polling company he co-founded.
The shares were sold in 2018 by Balshore Investments, an offshore fund which YouGov described as “a family trust of Nadhim Zahawi”.
In the same year, Zahawi and Zahawi, the UK property company controlled by Zahawi and his wife, received unsecured loans of £26 million from an undisclosed source.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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